IRONDALE, Alabama -- With a deadline fast approaching to seek a $3.25 million Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program grant for Grants Mill Road work, the Irondale City Council voted Tuesday night to spend $19,400 on a traffic study.

The study will examine traffic flow between Old Leeds Road and Interstate 459 and project how much traffic will be on that road in 20 years, said Darren Hamrick of Sain Engineering Associates. Sain will receive $11,000 of the $19,400.

Four Grants Mill Road intersections will be examined as part of the study -- Old Leeds Road, Karl Daly Road, Grantswood Road and the 459 on-ramps -- said Jerry South of South and Associates. That firm will receive $8,400.

The study is needed to improve the city's chance of being awarded an ATRIP grant, the deadline for which to apply is May 31, Hamrick said.

"They're considering a lot of projects, so you need to give them everything you can," Hamrick said.

The work -- if the grant is approved -- would not widen Grants Mill Road but create "an enhanced two lane" road with fewer curves that would be safer for commuters, South said. Two houses would have to be purchased to make way for the project, South said.

If the grant is approved it requires a 20 percent match from the city, about $750,000, South said. The project would not be bid until Sept. 30, 2014.

"If the grant's approved and you don't have the money you just say you aren't going to do it," South said.

The measures passed unanimously, although council members objected to being notified of the request shortly before the meeting.

"I like to know what's going on before I come to the dais," said Council President Bobby Joe Wilson. "I understand sometimes you have to make decisions at the spur of the moment."

South said he had been in meetings with various transportation officials and needed to have the item voted on before the next regular council meeting on May 21 to have the study done in time for the May 31 deadline.

"They (state transportation officials) feel there's a strong chance this grant will be approved," South told the council.